[Dixielandjazz] CDR's for "audio"

[Jim Kashishian]

I have stated several times on DJML that if one is recording on stand-alone
CD writers, you must use CDR's that state that they are for music recording
purposes.  These CD's cost considerably more than others.  Yes, supposedly
some of the price goes to the artists (which ones?).
 
And, if you're copying music from your computer, and at least hope to have a
lasting product, it would behoove you to spend the extra cash to do your
copying on something that at least has some thickness to it!
 
At first the stand-alone machines said the CD must only be 74 minutes, but
since those are almost impossible to buy, the 80 minutes seem to work fine.
However, you must find a brand that your machine "seems to like"!
 
I'm not being silly with that statement.  My two Marantz professional
writers (about $3,000 each) will drop out of recording all by themselves on
certain brands.  I'm now down to using Philips AUDIO CD-R 80 minutes for
audio CDR's (that's what's on the label), which are not easy to find.  I buy
them in Euros, naturally, but that must translate to about $2 apiece.
 
I used Sony which I can't find any longer, TDK...which work about half of
the time, and EMTEC which usually won't play on computers later.......  I
used to use, exclusively, a U.K. professional brand called HHB (gold disks),
and suddenly they must have changed something in their CDR's ingredients, as
my two Marantz (which I had bought from HHB!) wouldn't even "see" their
CDR's.  Said "no disk" when one was inside the machine!  Go figure!!!
 
Dodgy area, these things, and I think they will disappear from the
marketplace fairly soon...two years.  
 
If I were in this for just copying my own LP's for little money & fuss, I'd
buy that Teac.  If it doesn't sound all that good as the reports say, you
can always play your CD's, once made, on your normal equipment.
 
Me?  I will eventually get around to copying my collection, I'm sure, but am
too busy still working in the studio on daily work for that!  
 
How would I do it?  Most likely go out and buy a really good turntable &
copy to DAT tape (it will mark the starts, and those can be edited easily
after the fact if need be).  I would most likely pass the audio during real
time copying through my CEDAR DeCrackler & DeHisser between the turntable &
DAT recorder.  
 
Then, the ones I want to play around the house, I would go digitally from
DAT to CDR.  The cuts are automatically copied from the DAT tape onto the
CDR.  Why would I go to DAT?  An almost perfect storage medium....very
small, & absolutely impossible to erase (put one in a magnetic field tape
eraser & it does nothing to the audio!), and because of the excellent
automatic cuts marking, which the CDR's are real bad at!
 
Jim